


the stars are not wanted now

by foxinsocksinabox



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Disease, M/M, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-16 22:46:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11262594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxinsocksinabox/pseuds/foxinsocksinabox
Summary: Asahi fetches him water as Daichi laughs it off, goes about his chores like his chest doesn’t hurt him. Neither of them wants to admit what it sounds like.The cough started two days ago, and it sounds like death.





	the stars are not wanted now

**Author's Note:**

> for [tsukkis_playground](http://tsukkis-playground.dreamwidth.org), who prompted: 
> 
> There’s only three cans of soup left, and Daichi doesn’t have an appetite, but they’re going to be okay for now.

There’s only three cans of soup left and Daichi doesn’t have an appetite, but they’re going to be okay for now. They’ll just have to make a scavenging trip, see what they can find in the next town, or the next. The cans will last them a few more days, if Asahi thins it out to make it stretch.   
  
Daichi doesn’t think about why he doesn’t feel hungry. Instead, he turns his head to cough, sudden and sharp and bitter in the back of his throat.   
  
The cough rattles deep in Daichi’s chest, hollow and eerie. Asahi’s mouth goes tight every time he hears, and Daichi tries to be quiet- coughing into his sleeve, gritting his teeth against the urge, until it inevitably bursts out anyway, worse than before.   
  
Asahi fetches him water as Daichi laughs it off, goes about his chores like his chest doesn’t hurt him. Neither of them wants to admit what it sounds like.  
  
The cough started two days ago, and it sounds like death.

 

\---

 

The world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.   
  
By the time scientists identify what’s causing the sickness, hundreds of thousands have died. Europe is the hardest hit; with so many crossing the borders every day, they can’t quarantine the disease fast enough. It spreads to Africa, Asia, South America.   
  
North America closes its borders, but even they don’t stay free of the disease for long.   
  
The scientists don’t find a cure.

 

\---

 

Japan, as an island nation, survives for longer. Still, cities thin themselves out in no time- Tokyo is a ghost town now, as are Kyoto and Osaka. People spread themselves out in the countryside, as electricity cuts off ann infrastructure fails, hoping that they are far enough away from the epicentres that the disease will pass them by.   
  
It doesn’t.   
  
It comes for them all, in the end.   
  
Daichi sees so many people he loves waste away to nothing. The disease has mutated, it’s taking them longer now to die than it did in the beginning, but it just means more of them drown in their own blood instead of their hearts giving out. He buries them all, with shaking hands and no tears at all after- after.   
  
(After his parents, after Shimizu, after Yui and Noya and Tanaka and _Suga_. After Hinata wheezed and gurgled and died in Kageyama’s arms, and Kageyama left, his heart in his eyes like shards of glass.)  
  
Eventually, it’s just him and Asahi left.   
  
And eventually, Daichi realises with a sinking heart, as he wipes blood from the corners of his mouth, Asahi will be the last.

 

\---

 

When he finds out, Asahi says nothing.   
  
He just goes away and brings Daichi water, rubbing his shoulders as he coughs, and coughs, and coughs.   
  
With no electricity, there is no heat, and the winter chill is creeping in fast. Asahi bows his head and goes about making their little house- there were so many to choose from, after their owners all died- insulated against the cold. He won’t let Daichi help, and eventually Daichi, watching him check the windows for the fifth time, says tiredly, “Asahi.”  
  
Asahi stops.   
  
“Asahi, you should go. I’m probably already contagious. I heard they’re setting up a community in Kyushu, you could-”  
  
“No.”  
  
Daichi falls silent. He knows better than to argue with that tone, knew it was a long shot anyway. In any case, he’s tired. He simply waits, and when Asahi doesn’t turn around- just stands, shaking, hands white-knuckled against the sill- he sighs.   
  
“Okay,” he says. “Come on, c’mere.”  
  
Those broad shoulders sag, and Asahi keeps his face down as he turns towards him. He crawls into Daichi’s lap, all six feet of him, and Daichi just pulls his head down so that he can cradle him, shushing him gently. As he feels warmth soaking into his collar, Daichi closes his eyes.   
  
He stopped believing in God a long time ago, but for Asahi’s sake- he prays.

 

\---

 

Later, Asahi’s mouth finds its way to Daichi’s neck. It’s the longest stretch he’s had without a coughing fit in days, and he wants to sleep- but he can feel the desperation in the way Asahi presses feverish kisses down his chest, can feel the grief in the clutch of his fingers and the way Asahi seems to be trying to memorise him by touch.   
  
Daichi holds Asahi close until they both shudder apart, and then pulls him closer still while he cries awful, racking sobs, into Daichi’s chest.

 

\---

 

They spend the days in bed as Daichi gets weaker and weaker. When he feels up to it, they have sex. Most of the time, they just curl around each other as Daichi rests. Eventually, the coughing gets so bad he can barely eat, and Asahi is a constant, pale face at his bed side.   
  
And Daichi- Daichi has spent his life protecting and driving others, and now the end of it looms, and he’s _frightened_. He curls his shaking fists into Asahi’s shirt until he sleeps, and reaches for him again when he coughs himself awake.   
  
Once, in the middle of the night, the cough retreats enough for him to rasp Asahi’s name.   
  
“I’m here.” Asahi says, curling his large form around Daichi and pressing his nose into Daichi’s hair. “I’m here.”  
  
“When I’m gone-” Daichi breaks off to cough. “Fuck- when I’m gone. Go to Kyushu. Do you hear me?”  
  
It’s been a week and Asahi hasn’t begun to cough. Some just don’t catch the disease- no one knows why. It means Daichi will die, but Asahi will survive.  
  
Asahi starts to shake his head, beard rasping against Daichi’s hair. With what strength he can muster, Daichi turns and pulls Asahi down so he can look into his face. The cough is bubbling up again, but he manages to blurt, “You _go,_ ” before the it starts, and he cannot breath for pain.   
  
He cannot bear the idea of Asahi- gentle, kind Asahi- living out the rest of his life in silence and loneliness. If Daichi cannot be there with him, he wants him to be with other people, wants him to _live_.   
  
He doesn’t want to die, but if he must, then he refuses to take Asahi with him.   
  
He keeps repeating it, _go, Asahi, go_ , until Asahi shushes him finally, and he slips into a fitful sleep.

 

\---

 

The world whittles itself down to pain and coughing and the struggle for breath. Everything smells and tastes like metal, like blood, and Daichi can no longer tell dreams from wakefulness.   
  
But always, there is Asahi- a warmth at his side, a low voice in his ear, a comfort as Daichi loses his hold on everything else.   
  
His lips won’t obey him anymore, and his grip is weak. But Daichi reaches, and Asahi meets him halfway.   
  
_I love you,_ he thinks, pressing a bloody kiss to whitened knuckles. _I love you._  
  
 _Live._

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'Funeral Blues' by W. H. Auden
> 
> Come talk to me on [twitter!](http://www.twitter.com/foxrocksyrsocks)


End file.
